Isaiah 58:4, commentary and pictures

Fasting carried on with quarreling, contention, debate and violent striking will never cause the voice to be lifted high enough to be heard above. Going without food, bowing the head and putting on outward signs of affliction for a day have no worth in themselves to make the day acceptable when the heart is not humbled and the conduct is wrong. Such observance is only a pretense of humility that hides selfishness, inward wickedness and neglect of the needy while still pursuing self-interest and mistreating others. The fast that is chosen and accepted instead looses the bands of wickedness, undoes heavy burdens, frees the oppressed, breaks every yoke and feeds the hungry, houses the homeless poor and clothes the naked. When those works of mercy, justice and love are done, light breaks forth, health springs up, righteousness goes before, glory guards behind, and prayer is heard and answered from on high.

Words and Immediate Context

Fasting carried on in the midst of quarrels, strife, contention, debate, disputes, and striking with the fist of wickedness and violence does not cause the voice to be heard on high, and outward religious observance cannot substitute for justice, kindness, and freedom from oppression. Such fasting is false when joined to strife, debate, and violence, and outward fasting and mourning do not please God when they conceal deficiencies of the soul, for ceremonies that are only pretended devotion are rejected. The condemned fast is kept while finding pleasure and pursuing selfish interests on the fast day, exacting all labors, driving laborers, burdening others, and oppressing them, and therefore it is not the fast chosen and will not make the voice heard on high. Outward religious service joined to self-interest, conflict, argument, quarreling, and violence is unacceptable, and outward fasting and displays of self-denial do not replace heart service and a life free from oppression and wrongdoing. The defect is in those who fast, who complain that God does not see or take knowledge, while the trouble is with themselves, for they neglect His work and refuse to follow His way.

Mere outward affliction has no virtue in itself, and abstinence from food, afflicting the soul for a day, bowing the head as a bulrush, spreading sackcloth and ashes, and bodily ritual signs do not make an acceptable day to the Lord or prepare the way for blessing when hearts are not humbled and conduct is wrong. All praying and going without food avails nothing and does not make the voice heard on high unless joined to the special work now required, and forms of worship are acceptable only when the soul is spiritually naturally inclined to humility before God. Mere praying and abstinence avail nothing while fatherless and motherless children, the hungry, the naked, the poor cast out, widows, and the afflicted are left uncared for. The verse answers people who profess to seek God daily, delight to know His ways as if they did righteousness and forsook not His ordinance, ask ordinances of justice, take delight in approaching God, and then complain that He does not see their fasting and affliction of soul. God turns their reproach back upon them, declaring the trouble is with themselves, that they do not deserve all they demand at His hands because they have not dealt righteously, and that their hearts remain unsubdued by grace, rebellious against truth, and unnoticed for good reason.

Those who fast in this way try to make their own loud, self-made voice heard on high, trusting outward forms, ceremonies, and performances to commend them while lacking meekness and lowliness, and that voice is not the voice God bids be heard. The true voice gives the trumpet a certain sound, clearly and distinctly proclaiming truth in a most earnest and decided manner without beating about the bush. The wrong fast also includes selfish ideas and plans, and the picture must be turned over from selfishness to brotherhood. It includes watching and reproving others, magnifying their faults, quarrelling, cruel attacks, and harsh correction that provoke discord, injure neighbor and friend, wound the righteous, harm the cause of God, and defeat the purpose of seeking divine favor.

Why the Fast Fails

Fasting joined to quarrels, strife, debate and violent or unjust treatment of others is only a pretense of humility and cannot make worship acceptable or cause the voice to be heard on high. Outward fasting and mourning, meetings and prayers, forms and ceremonies and rigorous outward performance do not please God when they conceal deficiencies of the soul, inward wickedness, envy and unclean hearts, but hide sin rather than express true devotion. God does not accept the number of meetings or prayers from Sabbath-keepers who make claims to godliness while remaining selfish and neglecting the needy, but requires right action at the right time, including relieving the oppressed and caring for the homeless, orphans and widows, becoming less self-caring and more benevolent. Such contentious fasting marked by pride and self-righteousness, as with the Pharisees, trusts outward forms without meekness and lowliness, as of those who claim to seek God daily and delight in His ways and ordinances while having forsaken Him.

The defect is selfishness and self-righteous service that expects payment and reward for religious acts while conduct contradicts the devotion claimed. People fast while pursuing their own interests, burdening and mistreating others, exploiting them and seeking power over them, so outward self-denial and religious acts do not amount to a fast God accepts. Fasting and prayer mixed with selfishness, strife, neglect of mercy and of love for God and others do not prove true connection with God, which is shown instead by doing works of righteousness for others and by every soul who claims partaking of the divine nature ridding himself of everything like selfishness. Religious observance does not excuse exploiting others, and acceptable worship must be joined to justice and care for the oppressed and needy.

Acceptable worship instead bears fruit in practical mercy and releasing people from oppression, and cannot gain favor or make prayer heard while hearts remain unclean and hard and conduct lacks repentance, faith working through love, mercy, justice and care for the needy. Outward religious acts do not recommend people to God when they lack Christ's meek and lowly spirit, but proceed with contempt and hardness of heart, pride, self-exaltation, contention and fierce spirit, disputing over who is greatest and publicly accusing one another. Such a course dishonors the truth, drives people apart, harms the church's witness, and separates the life from Christ, applying to contentious, self-exalting councils whose loud, self-made voice raised to be heard on high is not the true, clear message God bids be heard and does not give the trumpet a certain sound. The promises are experienced when people turn from that spirit and show compassion to the poor, the infirm, the oppressed, widows and orphans.

Formal, self-seeking religious observance and prayer are not heard, while praying in the Spirit joined to loving God with heart and soul and mind and strength and loving neighbor as self produces prayers that carry divine prompting and are heard and answered. Earnest prayer from a humble, contrite heart is heard and answered, for outward fasting and prayer have no value without a broken, contrite spirit, inward grace and humbling of the soul. God receives those who humble their hearts wholeheartedly and hears their petitions, and ministers and people need purification, humiliation and repentance so that judgments may be turned away.

The chapter is to be read as rebuke, reproof and correction in righteousness that plainly marks out the way of the Lord to God's people, including those in positions of responsibility who profess devotion while remaining morally and spiritually polluted. It rejects mere profession and zeal in a false faith, where fasting is joined with strife and debate, and requires practical godliness as Bible religion, doing justice and mercy and ever elevating the purest principles of the kingdom of God. They must be pure and holy and answer to God, not submit to human-made yokes.

Fast God Chooses

In contrast to the fasting for strife that is rejected, the fast that God has chosen and takes pleasure in is to loose the bands of wickedness, undo the heavy burdens, let the oppressed go free, and break every yoke. It takes away selfishness with the yoke, the pointing of the finger and speaking vanity, and resolutely does the work of dealing bread to the hungry, bringing the homeless poor and the poor cast out into the house, and covering the naked. Mere praying and abstinence from food, outward affliction of soul, bowing the head, sackcloth and ashes avail nothing while fatherless and motherless children, the hungry, the naked, widows, the afflicted, and vulnerable young people are left uncared for. Religious observance without mercy and practical help, without lifting burdens and freeing the oppressed, is not the fast God chooses, but following Christ's example by caring for the unfortunate is.

That acceptable fast is not mere abstinence but the special work now required of dealing bread to the hungry and bringing the poor that are cast out into the house. It does not wait for the needy to come and plead but searches for them and draws out the soul after them. It reaches up by faith with one hand to take hold of God's mighty saving arm while with the other hand of love reaching the oppressed to relieve them. It is impossible to fasten upon God's arm with one hand while the other is employed in ministering to one's own pleasure.

Putting these works of mercy and the precepts of the law into practice brings righteousness before the people and God's glory behind them. Only then is prayer heard on high, with light breaking forth, health springing forth speedily, and the Lord answering when His people call. Putting this care into practice to help and uplift the wounded, the oppressed, and those in peril brings healthfulness of soul, and the Lord creates peace in the soul that is of more value than gold. Every faithful performance of this duty stands registered in the books of heaven and receives more than an earthly reward, for it is a sacred duty owed to God to receive His grace in order to give it to others. When churches enter this unselfish missionary condition instead of doing no unselfish work and exacting labor, selfishness that bound up souls is overcome, moral power and blessing attend labor, light is given to the world in clear bright rays, and overworked workers in hard places receive God's care, righteousness going before them, immediate answer with no silence, and a crown laid up in the heavenly courts.

Such fasting is not an outward show joined to selfish and unjust ways and oppression of others, but true humility that puts away sin, seeks pardon, and requires repentance, faith, and a changed heart. Its spirit is opposite to high profession of piety and outward exactness bound up with inward wickedness and hearts unsubdued by grace and rebellious against truth, yielding instead mind, heart, and will to God, receiving the truth which works by love and purifies the soul, and honoring God by obedience to His law, which is holy, just, and good. It does Christ's works and works in His ways, revealing tender compassion as Christ did and cleansing marketplaces, stores, courts, lawyers' offices, and medical and medical missionary work from robbery, extortion, and fraudulent transactions, because the soul who keeps the Sabbath is stamped with the sign of God's government and the King's mark and must not dishonor it by dishonesty. The righteousness that goes before those who do this work, as promised in verse 8, is the imputed righteousness of Jesus Christ.

End-Time Prophetic Message

Isaiah 58 is present truth for this period of earth's history near the end, to be considered and done now, to be read repeatedly for deeper impression, and to be read and studied carefully as a whole chapter showing true service that worships God in spirit and in truth. Its marked fulfillment belongs to the nearness of the end, and its warning applies to present experience when time is passing rapidly and many have little understanding of what needs to be done in right lines. It is to be studied diligently together with Isaiah 55, Isaiah 56, and Isaiah 57, and with Isaiah 58:1-8, to arouse pastors and people and believers in the cities from spiritual stupidity so they give the light to others and make an impression on the world. The trumpet message to show God's people their transgression and the house of Jacob their sins belongs here, even while they seek God daily and delight to know His ways as if they did righteousness and delight in approaching Him. Those in positions of responsibility must therefore not be deceived nor become careless or inattentive to the Word, but must walk humbly, seek the Lord while He may be found, and return to Him for mercy and abundant pardon.

The chapter enjoins the last-days work of repairing the breach made in God's law by the man of sin through displacement of His memorial, the seventh-day Sabbath, the sign of His creating work. Believers who turn away their feet from the Sabbath show they bear His sign by keeping His commandments, building the old waste places, raising up the foundations of many generations, and restoring old paths. This message carries God's power for the conversion of souls and marks out a right and a wrong course, with blessings specified for following the right and avoiding the faults condemned in ancient Israel by taking up duties close at hand with calm, unwavering trust in Him who is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. Its closing verses connect Sabbath observance with repairing the breach, and its benevolent care is directed toward those who accept the truth and become faithful commandment keepers, including poor families who suffer for obeying God and might otherwise be forced to work on the Sabbath or starve, rather than spending God's resources on work that neglects them.

Its work is bound to the third angel's message as closely as hand to body, and fasting joined to quarreling, strife, debate, and violence is false and cannot make the voice acceptable or heard on high. The Sabbath truth is to be proclaimed with a loud voice, clearly and distinctly, in a most earnest and decided manner, without gradual preparation of the way or beating about the bush, as with a trumpet giving a certain sound. Sabbath keeping and genuine medical missionary work are inseparably united as the ministry that restores the moral image of God in man, carried on through generous giving and practical labor such as feeding the hungry and helping sufferers in reflection of Christ's benevolent ministry. God has united ministry and medical missionary work and no man should separate them or give ministry an inferior place, and such service must support the third angel's message without obscuring its principles, keeping the soul's spiritual needs prominent while ministering to suffering humanity and bringing the light of truth before a perishing world.

Those called to repair the breach must not stir up contention among those who profess to keep God's commandments, for those who fast for strife and debate will not make their voice heard on high. The breach is the exalting of a spurious Sabbath instead of the Sabbath of Jehovah, and soon laws will compel all to observe the first day instead of the seventh, bringing trouble enough without internal strife among commandment keepers. The chapter plainly specifies methods of service following Christ's compassionate example and rejecting dishonest dealings, and Sabbathkeepers must cleanse marketplaces, merchandise stores, courts of justice, lawyers' offices, the medical fraternity and medical missionary work from robbery, extortion, and fraudulent transactions, for God will not be a party to any dishonest transaction. The soul who keeps the Sabbath is stamped with the sign of God's government and must not dishonor this sign by dishonesty, but by closely examining the Word may know whether he has the King's mark and has been chosen and set apart to honor God, being called away from sin and opposition to righteousness and truth.

The trumpet warning now to be lifted up calls every soul to receive Bible truth enthroned in the heart, for only Bible truth enthroned in the heart keeps the heart with all diligence, with individual souls at stake. It calls for raising the standard of godliness and true Christian living, putting away sin, and being made holy through the truth, answering what truth is and what pure and undefiled religion requires in light of eternal realities. The chapter is the remedy for the church's selfishness and failure to cooperate with God and Christ in saving souls, to show the world God's concern for sinners through true service that He will accept.

History and Examples Cited

The verse describes the dreadful present state of a nation that has forsaken and forgotten God, chosen other gods and followed its own corrupt ways until God turned from it, trampled upon His law and broken His everlasting covenant, bringing calamity upon itself. Its fasting is marked by strife and violence rather than righteousness, and the verse applies to an unrighteous war in such a nation as the cause of its calamity. The warning about fasting amid strife and violence belongs to that larger description of the nation's sinful condition and the reasons for its calamity.

It applies to a nation proclaiming a fast while abusing enslaved people and refusing to free the oppressed, so that fasting joined to strife, violence, and oppression cannot make prayer heard and turns religious observance into an insult to God. The same unacceptable fasting accompanies efforts to silence those working to free the oppressed, when leaders censure or remove people seeking to undo burdens and break the yoke of slavery. Prayers concerning the war will not be accepted until the nation practices the fast God has chosen.

It exposes the condition of the Jewish nation with its priests and Pharisees when Christ met them, who claimed to seek God daily and delighted in His ways and ordinances while having forsaken Him and trusting outward forms and ceremonies without meekness and lowliness. Their fasts were done for strife and debate and oppression, marked by pride and self-righteousness, contention and quarreling, hatred and despising of publicans and sinners, and wicked violence, and such rigorous forms did not amount to true devotion. Their guilt before God was greater than that of the publicans and sinners they despised, yet the world's Redeemer could not honor their fasting, while Christ in humility ate with publicans and sinners to draw men to Himself. The voice God bids be heard on high is different, giving the trumpet a certain sound, and this contentious outward fasting is not the fast in which He takes pleasure.

The Jews' vow to go without food or drink while plotting Paul's murder exemplifies the condemned fast, which joins fasting to strife, contention, violence, and wickedness rather than sincere devotion. They used a religious act and oath to give their murderous plan a show of religious sanction, and it stands as an example of the kind of fast the verse rejects.

The verse shows the spirit filling the hearts of the disobedient, who war against truth and righteousness and complain against God because He does not favor their work, while God cannot bless them because they use fasting for strife and contention and wicked violence. Religious profession combined with quarreling and cruel oppression is not accepted, and such fasting will not cause the voice to be heard on high. It vindicates those who walk in the light of God's commands as not deserving to be maligned and persecuted, in contrast to those who compel men to do evil and enforce worship of the beast, who insult God and have reason to fear His judgment.

Church and Personal Duty

The wrong fast must be changed and done no more, with accusing of others stopped and strife and debating put away, each person caring for self to see that he walks in the Lord's footsteps, coming straight to what God says, living under God's control, and seeking God's opinion concerning himself individually rather than the opinion of men. For the individual Christian who abides in Christ by eating the bread of life, doing the work specified in the chapter gives a healthy, growing experience with God's light and righteousness going before, and it requires ceasing to find fault with fellow workers and improving self instead. The picture must be turned over from selfishness with selfish ideas and plans to brotherhood, for contentious, self-exalting councils and fierce spirits with hard hearts lacking mercy, justice, and care for the needy cannot gain God's favor by religious acts, while compassion to the poor, the infirm, the oppressed, widows, and orphans brings the chapter's promises.

Holding to the accusing, self-exalting course is a recipe for sickness, despondency, evil surmisings, and words that injure neighbor and friend, whereas turning brings acknowledgment of brotherhood and healing as the morning with righteousness before and the glory of God as rearward. Leaving fasting for strife and selfish exaction and entering the unselfish missionary condition required in the last stage of earth's history brings God's care for workers who have worked too hard in hard places because others have not done their duty, health springing forth speedily, immediate answer to prayer with no silence, and a crown laid up in the heavenly courts, while continued selfish exactions discourage the workers.

The chapter's instruction is practiced by following God's directions unto physical and spiritual strength, putting religion into practical Christlike service in a wide field of work, and caring personally for the poor, sick, homeless, orphans, aged, children, young people, distressed families, and others who need help rather than leaving their care to others. This includes helping needy children find homes, giving up luxuries and needless costly ornaments so sufferers can be made comfortable, giving wisely for benefit, and such service receives the promised blessing, overcomes selfishness, and causes spiritual life, missionary power, and faith shining to the world through godly example to grow. In sanitariums patients are to see its principles carried out with truth preserved in its sacred influence, through truthful, just, merciful work with fair charges proportionate to service rendered.

God's plan is to enlighten the world and, alongside proclaiming the message, relieve distressed families, with help for those who accept truth especially at cost of being cast out, for faithful commandment keepers, and for poor families who suffer for obeying God and might otherwise be forced to work on the Sabbath or starve. Those arrayed in Christ's righteousness and sanctified by truth will not be bound about by bands of selfishness but will go forth to labor for all classes with equal solicitude, regarding all the world as the field, sowing seed in good works for those without light and teaching the word to unbelievers, supporting the third angel's message without obscuring spiritual needs. Piety, spiritual knowledge, and growth of a church are proportionate to the zeal, piety, and missionary intelligence brought into it and carried out of it to bless others, and when the extensive vineyard is worked on the lines pointed out the church will no more remain almost stationary but will increase in moral power with blessing and power attending labor, selfishness overcome, and light given in clear bright rays in living faith and godly example. That duty is not fulfilled by diverting available means from the work God has assigned, nor by caring for every depraved person, drunkard, or prostitute as assigned work, nor by spending resources on slum work that brings few true conversions or additions to workers, and its closing verses connect Sabbath observance with repairing the breach and restoring old paths.

The verse warns that fasting amid strife, contention, disputes, and violence is unacceptable worship that cannot make appeal heard, exposing contradiction between outward observance and harmful conduct, giving the reason God's special blessing is not realized, and calling everyone granted breath of life to understand duty and do the required part without extremes, with fulfillment of promise without fail to those who obey. Receiving the message calls for change of life, humility, and repentance that brought tears and testimony, for men to repent and humble themselves instead of persisting in wrongdoing and harm to self and others, and for justice and truth shown in lifting the oppressed and strengthening the weak, since God cares for the despised and rejected and preserves those who do His will so their service leads others to honor Him. It carries the call for decided, deep, thorough reformation and repentance not only among young people but among instructors of the young, pointing out the evil of the diseased soul and its remedy.

Ministers are not to hover about churches repeating the same truths week after week to believers, nor keep going over the same ground to gain knowledge for self while souls are in darkness of error, for sitting in church Sabbath after Sabbath listening to preaching without helping others take hold on eternal realities is failing to labor together with God. The Lord will work intelligently for all who work intelligently for Him by visiting friends, neighbors, and families, seeking to create interest in present truth, planting the Word in many hearts, dealing out the bread of life to hungering souls, working for souls, teaching others, and helping the fallen physically and spiritually. This is the precious extended work of lifting up Christ in the last days to understand what must be done to be saved, away from merely theoretical belief and feeble efforts disproportionate to light toward faith and works combined in medical missionary labor, educating students to do service others are unwilling to do, breaking every hindering yoke and opposing authority that hinders servants from working in harmony with given light, so that by diligent study joined with practice understanding is greatly enlarged, the Spirit stays near, love is kindled, and workers walk in light with the Spirit and favor of the Lord.

Its warnings and encouragements bring light, life, and goodness when received and applied personally, with comfort and an open door where seekers meet God in meekness, seek earnestly, find Him, humble the heart, and stand in right relation to Him. It gives light for those rejoicing in hope of the soon-coming morning, showing the Lord desires to send reviving healing beams of sunshine, in contrast to passing fashion, leading to enduring fashion of the world to come with infinite bliss, boundless joy, prepared mansions, and clear unquestioned title to the immortal inheritance and everlasting kingdom for those who love God and keep His commandments by faith. It is recommended as a sure remedy for poor health, here connected with self-denial and giving means to support God's work rather than spending on personal wants. Its instruction is to be read and practiced so prayer is sincere and shaped by love for God and neighbor rather than formal or selfish, and must be studied alongside God's promises of salvation, mercy, forgiveness, and power of His word, leading ministers and members to be converted and witness in Christ's manner.